Monthly Archives: May 2013

Some of us ‘Old Timers’ can remember the Time magazine cover in 1966 asking the question Is God Dead? It hardly seems possible, but things have changed so much since then that the question doesn’t even seem to be reasonable for 1966. And yet it is a question that many people, including some of us Christians, have asked at some point in our lives. We may not admit it to others, but quite a few of us who live our lives as Christians and embrace the teachings of Jesus have questioned the very existence of God. It is usually at some low point in life when we face something that we don’t understand. Something that doesn’t line up with what we believe about God or have been taught about Him. Sometimes we question our faith when it is challenged by others. When we can’t back up what we believe, or are hit with a valid question. One of those questions would be “Where was God when…..”

I will give you a couple of personal examples. Hopefully you won’t judge me too harshly. My wife and I got married when we were 19. Neither of us knew what we were doing, but I have come to the conclusion that Penny knew quite a bit more than I did about what we were getting into. Three months after we were married, I received the news that she was pregnant. At 19, I didn’t have a clue what that really meant for my life, but I was ignorantly blissful of the prospects of being a father. I had plans. My son would grow up to love music as I did. He would enjoy sports. I would have someone to teach the ways of manhood, to share life with, to go hunting, fishing, take to ballgames. He would be a football fan and we would watch the games together cheering for our team.

When my daughter was born, I was stunned. I hadn’t even chosen a girls name. I had no girl clothes. I had tons of boy things – baseball gloves, cars and trucks. A girl? Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Heather. I am not sorry that I had her and wouldn’t trade her for anything. After all, this was only the first child. I would give God another chance two years later. I chose a more popular boys name and told all of my friends about what my new son and I would do. All of the things I mentioned above.

When Kristen was born, I’ll admit I was more than a little baffled. I was downright angry at God. Twice? Again – I don’t want to give the impression that I love my children any less because they were not boys. I love them as much as I would have loved a boy. But they’re not boys. They didn’t go hunting or fishing with me. They did play football with me when they were young, much to the horror of Penny when she walked into the house and saw each girl sandwiched between two pillows with one of my belts holding the pillows on. That aside, they did not grow up to be the starting quarterback on their college team. They weren’t the boys that I imagined I would have.

Eight years later, we made the mistake of watching the movie “A Christmas Story” during the Christmas holiday. We decided that we really wanted a boy like Ralphie. We tried again. This time, I would do it right. I put my faith into action. I told all my friends about my son. Heather was going to name him Chester. I prayed and actually believed this time. There was no doubt that God was going to give me a son. And nine months later, Chelsea was born. This was one of my times to question. What about faith? What about prayer? What about favor? What about all of those things I was taught about how much God loved me? How He wanted me to be happy? How He cared for me. How if I prayed and believed He would give me the desires of my heart? If two of us agree concerning anything…

In early April 2003, I received a call from my mother. My Dad had been taken to the hospital. Nothing to worry about. He had stomach pain and they discovered that he had pneumonia. They were treating it. Nothing serious. After two weeks in the hospital, they discovered that they had mis-diagnosed. By this point, he had contracted sepsis, was on a ventilator and we were told that he would not recover. I knew otherwise. Jesus had raised people from the dead and Dad wasn’t even dead yet. God was going to heal him as a testimony to His greatness. All of the doctors would be astounded at his recovery. I would pray and he would get better. On April 25th 2003, the man who had been my inspiration to enter the ministry passed away. This was also one of my times to question. Where was God? I still get angry sometimes when people talk about a family member who was on the verge of death and God performed a miracle and healed them.

Of course, we tend to justify God’s actions when they don’t line up with what we want to believe. If we didn’t get the job we prayed for, God must have a better one in mind for us. If we get in an accident and aren’t killed, God was protecting us from dying. Never mind that we had the accident in the first place. If someone dies, they must have wanted to go, or it must have been God’s will. Ten years after the death of my father, I still have questions. But you know what I’ve discovered? It’s OK. Having faith does not mean that you don’t have questions too.

John the Baptist went around telling everyone that Jesus was the Messiah. He was the one they were waiting for. He even baptized Jesus and told that crowd that he (John) was not worthy to unlace the sandals of Jesus. John devoted his entire adult life to promoting the ministry of Jesus. To pointing people to Him as the Messiah. In Matthew 11, we find John in prison for standing up to Herod. I won’t go into the details of his imprisonment because it is irrelevant to this discussion. What is relevant is that after being in prison for two years, John sends some of his followers to ask Jesus a question. “Are you really the Messiah or should we look for someone else?” Sounds like John may have had a question or two himself doesn’t it? Shouldn’t he have asked that question before he told everyone that Jesus was the Messiah? I would have imagined that John would have had the answer to that question firmly in place before publicly proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. And yet he asks. It sounds like Johns faith may have been wavering too. After all, he had devoted much time and energy into setting Jesus up to take the stage. Plus, he wasn’t just another preacher. He was Jesus’ cousin. They were blood. Family. Why did Jesus allow John to sit in prison for standing up for the right thing. Surely, if Jesus was the Messiah, He would have rescued John by now. So John had questions. The same questions we have. We have also proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah. The Son of God. And yet, we question why we face some things too. The death of a parent, or even the gender of a child. Maybe for you it was the loss of a job or a failed relationship.

I think that some of our questions go back to scriptures like I mentioned above, without looking at some of the other scriptures that talk about the other side of Christianity. We hear that if two agree as touching anything… it will be done for them. If we simply believe that we have what we pray for, God will give it to us. And yet, if we just pull those scriptures apart from the Bible as a whole, we lose the reality of Christianity. God is not our servant. We are His. Not that God doesn’t love us and want to do good things for us and give us good things, but that isn’t what Christianity is all about. It’s not about us. We want it to be, but it isn’t. Christianity is about other people. Jesus didn’t die for Himself. He died for others.

Sometimes, when you’re going through a tough time and don’t understand where God is, it’s in order to help someone else. In fact, some of us have been on the receiving end of this. Have you ever had a tough time, and then had someone approach you with a story of their own? My Mother in-law bought the house right across the street from us several years ago. A year later, she passed away. The house she had bought had not been set up right when it was purchased. Instead of Penny and I inheriting it, we discovered that it now belonged to all of her living relatives. Brothers, husband, grandchildren etc. We did however, inherit her house in Virginia. And the mortgage. And the 2nd mortgage. We suddenly found ourselves nearly half a million dollars in debt. Because our faith was strong, we never questioned God through all of this. Yeah, right. I questioned God on the way to work, during work and on the way home. I prayed and didn’t have any money show up in my mailbox. There was no miraculous debt reduction. But there was a miracle. About a week after we learned about the mix-up in finances, a friend approached us and said that she had been working a part-time job that she now had to give up. Were we interested in working for some extra money? You bet we were. The job paid $17 and hour, which was great money for a part-time job, and involved both Penny and I. It also involved 7 days a week. We worked until 5 at our regular jobs during the week, then went to our part-time jobs and worked until 9 PM. On Saturdays and Sundays, we each worked 8 hours both days. We had a part-time income that rivaled our full-time income. After two years, we were able to quit the part-time jobs. We had sold the house in Virginia, paid off the 2nd mortgage and owned the house across the street and were renting it. Did God answer my prayers? Not quite how I expected Him to. I didn’t expect to work my way out of it. I expected Him to miraculously change paperwork, or help me win a lottery that I didn’t play, or have another Christian approach me with a check and a story about how God had told him to give me some money….

Do I have a story to help others? I do. I also learned a lesson about finances that I hadn’t learned before. Of course, I didn’t think so at the time, but that time of my life has become one of the most rewarding. It is certainly one of the most memorable, and I am a better person for having endured it. And that’s the other reason that we go through things sometimes. We don’t tend to learn things as quickly if there are no consequences to us not learning it. I think this is the reason that James said “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” Tough times make us better people if we choose to apply what we have learned.

I’ve learned that everyone is going through something. Your something may not be as big a something as someone else’s something. Except to you. Know that whatever you are going through, you are not going through it alone. God is there even when it isn’t readily apparent. I still don’t have a son, but I have 3 grandsons. My father is not around, but I have his legacy and he’s still an inspiration to me. You will have a story to tell. Your story can be an inspiration to someone else. And God will teach you something through this. You will be a better person. If you choose to listen and learn.

I was perusing the web this week and noticed a few things that I found a little disturbing and sometimes even a little amusing. The anti-Christian crowd was out in force posting on Facebook and commenting on a few news articles as well. A couple of examples:

A Facebook post:

“Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church”

A tweet about a prominent Pastor:

“@xxx – just read ur bio. u neglect to say ‘robbing people of 10% of their income and 100% of their brain’.”

More from Facebook:

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” ~Mark Twain
“It is crazy how many people become millionaires and billionaires through peddling their imaginary friends.”

From an article on Christianity:

“One of the biggest problems Christians have is when they hear something they think sounds wonderful at church or in an apologetics book and make the huge and terrible mistake of not realizing that these arguments are for the choir, not for the outsiders peeking in through the church windows.”

That last comment really hits home. Why do people feel the need to criticize Christianity? Some of them have been hurt in the past by well-meaning Pastors and church members. However, while well-meaning people are some of the trouble, I believe that most of the issue lies with us. 1 Peter 3:15 says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” I don’t think we’re always ready to give an answer. Why? Because I don’t think a lot of us know the answers. As the poster above so aptly stated, we sit in church on Sundays and listen to a message that most of us agree with, and we aren’t challenged to explain or question any of our beliefs. So we don’t know how. If the preacher didn’t speak about it this month, we don’t know anything about it. If the Pastor doesn’t give us an answer (that we can remember anyway) then we don’t have an answer for it.

As one of my previous posts pointed out, quite a few Christians don’t really know their Bible. Those that do, too often only know enough to sound ignorant – quoting verses out of context, or, even worse, using the Bible to spew hate-filled tirades against unbelievers. Sometimes I think we take the analogy of being sheep too literal. We rely on a “shepherd”, or Pastor, to feed us, not realizing that the shepherd’s job was and is not to feed the sheep. To maintain a large flock, sheep needed to be able to move from pasture to pasture; this required the development of an occupation separate from that of the farmer. The shepherd. The duty of shepherds was to keep their flock intact and protect it from wolves and other predators.

So the job of a shepherd was to protect the sheep and lead them to different pastures where they could eat, but not to feed them. Too often, we rely on a Pastor to feed us, when, in reality, it is his or her job to keep us intact and protect us. We should just be eating in the pasture where they lead us. They may lead us to their backyard – their area of knowledge or expertise. They may lead us to topics, or to specific verses in the Bible. It is then up to us to feed from those topics, those verses, or those areas of biblical knowledge. It is up to us to “study to show ourselves approved to God”. The Bible says that those who seek God diligently will find Him. If I told you that there was a million dollars buried in a certain field, would you dig a hole and then give up searching if you didn’t find it in that hole? I don’t think so. You would dig another, then another until every inch of that field was dug, or until you found the money.

You see, too often, we dig one hole in searching for God’s truth. We go to church and listen to the Pastor expecting him to deliver the truth to us instead of searching for it diligently. Sometimes we find some truth in the Pastor’s weekly or bi-weekly message and that suffices us. I would say that would be like digging a hole and finding $100 and quitting because it was enough.

The Bible says that “iron sharpens iron”, yet too often we are trying to sharpen iron with wood. The reason iron sharpens iron is because as the two pieces of hard and unrelenting metal strike against each other, a little of each is shaved away in the process. Eventually, the edges become sharp. What happens when you strike iron against wood? It simply chisels away at the wood, never affecting the iron. So how do we sharpen ourselves? By striking against something as hard as we are. By challenging our way of thinking. By discussing things that make us defend our faith.

I think we have to become real sheep, not domesticated zoo animals that have to be hand-fed by a zookeeper. We need to become sheep that are discerning even in our own shepherd’s field. Do you believe everything that your Pastor preaches? Why or why not? My Pastor tells us to challenge him. To prove his teachings by comparing what he teaches with the Bible.  Don’t believe everything he says simply because he says it. While that sounds nearly blasphemous to some, it is healthy Christianity. You need to know why you believe what you believe, and the answer cannot be “because my Pastor said so”. That will not win unbelievers to the kingdom. Just re-read the posts above to see that I’m telling you the truth.

I challenge you to challenge yourself. Challenge your thought process. When taking notes during your Pastor’s message, make note of anything he says that you think needs verification. Then verify it later. Look up scriptures he references, then read them in context to make sure that what he says is what God intended. Get involved in a small group in your church. I personally think that this is the best way to sharpen yourself. It gives you an opportunity to discuss your beliefs with others who believe the same way you do, but who may approach those beliefs differently. It also offers the occasional opportunity to face a thought or an idea with which you do not believe. That provides you an opportunity to sharpen yourself by having to defend your beliefs, but not face hostility.

So what are you? A sheep, or a domesticated pet? Do you require hand-feeding, or will you feed yourself where your shepherd leads you? It really comes down to this: Are you always ready to give an answer to anyone who asks what you believe? Could you defend your faith to someone who believes differently than you do? Not just argue a point, but convince them through the skillful use of the Word of God? And use it correctly? This is our mandate from Christ. Sharpen yourself and become the sheep you were meant to be!

I have been a musician nearly my entire life. I began taking piano lessons when I was five years old. As most children do, I despised having to practice and gave up the piano for a brief time in my early teens. Once I hit high school I began playing again on my own. It was different playing under my own rules. I could practice or not practice. However, once I joined a rock band in high school, I discovered that what I really wanted to do was to play the guitar.

I eventually picked up an off-brand guitar and began teaching myself to play. In my 20′s I was able to purchase a Fender Strat and began trying to learn some lead licks off the radio. I never became proficient on guitar until about 3 or 4 years ago. After a lot of years of just playing around with the guitar I began really trying to play. I purchased a book and DVD that gave me some lessons, and then two years ago I realized my dream of owning a Gibson Les Paul guitar. It’s a beautiful Silverburst, has a great tone and feels wonderful. I’m still not a professional guitar player, but I have come to know the joy of playing guitar.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to tour Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. I’ll admit that I am not a huge Elvis fan, but I do like history, and touring Graceland was a pretty cool thing to be able to do. We toured the main house and grounds, the racquetball court, which is now full of trophies, and Elvis’ trophy room, which is a separate building. As we viewed the many displays of Elvis’ costumes and memorabilia, something caught my attention. It was a beautiful 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar. As a guitar player, I thought the guitar was beautiful. In fact, my first thought was “What a beautiful guitar!” Then I realized where it was: behind glass. My first thought was quickly replaced by “What a shame!”

I envisioned a Disney-esque scenario where the guitar could speak and could express emotion. I imagined that this guitar was created in a factory that made similar guitars. After its creation, it had dreams of being played by someone great; on a stage before thousands of people. When it was purchased by Elvis, it had its dreams realized as Elvis played it in his concerts. It felt a sense of well-being and accomplishment. It felt pride at being played skillfully and also at how well it sounded.

After the death of Elvis, the guitar was eventually put on display. At first, I imagined that the guitar said to itself “Look at all of these people coming to see me!” This went beyond that guitars dreams of being seen by thousands of people. Now it had millions of people coming to view it behind the glass. Eventually however, I imagine that the guitar began to get a little frustrated. No one was playing it. It was created to make music, not to just be viewed from a distance and be kept behind a glass enclosure. Did the guitar pride itself in its appearance? Sure it did. It was a great looking guitar. But it was not created with the intention of only looking good. Its appearance was secondary to its purpose. Now I imagined the guitar becoming angry, dejected, suffering from depression and eventually dying behind that glass enclosure. Why? Because it was not doing what it was created to do. It no longer made music.

I’m sure that it’s not difficult for most of you to figure out what I’m getting at here. You were created for a purpose. For some of you it was also to make music. Some of you were created to talk to others about the Gospel. Talking comes easy for you. For others, it may be hosting those who are comfortable talking. Hospitality comes easy for you. You’re comfortable putting together events and gatherings. Some of you were called to preach or teach. And yet you’re stuck behind glass. You may even have a title or position at church. At first, it was nice. You received recognition. People knew your name. But now, you’re realizing that you were created for a purpose. And this isn’t it.

At some point, nearly all of us will come to the realization that life isn’t what we imagined it to be. Like Jimmy Stewart in It’s A Wonderful Life, we had plans. We had dreams. We had a purpose. And unless you are one of the few fortunate people who grew up to make a living doing what you enjoy doing, you have experienced some level of disappointment at how your life turned out. You’re stuck behind glass.

I had a dream of entering full-time ministry, yet even after realizing that dream, I came to the stunning realization that being in the ministry was not what I had envisioned all those years. My purpose was to touch people, which didn’t necessarily mean that I had to be in full-time ministry. Or even part-time for that matter. I had misconstrued ministering with ministry. I thought that in order to touch the most people, I had to be in a position. Have a title. And yet, even after I had those things, I was stuck behind glass.

After many years of internal struggle between what I thought I wanted and what my purpose is, I made an important discovery: my purpose. You see, I am not a preacher. But I am a teacher. I’m a trainer. I’m an encourager. And I don’t need a title, or a position, or a platform to be those things. In fact, my specific purpose is really to be a missionary to the church. What my position taught me is that there are multitudes sitting in churches all over the country every week who have no idea what it means to be a Christian. To live a Christian life. To have faith in God. To trust. Don’t get me wrong. They believe. Or at least they believe that they believe. But they don’t really know why they believe. They’re stuck in religion. They don’t understand how to relate to God outside of rules or ritual or without someone telling them specifically what to do. My purpose, as daunting as it seems, is to help Christians discover God apart from religion. To really know God for themselves. To become self-feeders of the Word of God. To grow in their knowledge, faith and relationship with God. Now that I know my purpose, I have come out from behind the glass. I’m content. Not always happy, often frustrated, but content nonetheless.

What is your purpose? Are you stuck behind glass watching the world pass in front of you and knowing that this is not what you were created to do? Few of us will hear God call us like He did Samuel. How do you discover your purpose? First of all, pray. It seems simple, but ask God what His plan for you is. Then listen for an answer. It may come through reading the Bible, or through a friend who notices something you do well, or even through watching a movie or TV show. God is not limited in how He communicates with us.

Second, take a spiritual gifts test. There are several available online and I would suggest taking several and comparing the results. Something to remember is that your spiritual gifts will probably not surprise you. If you are stingy with your money and time and your spiritual gifts inventory says that you have the gift of giving, something is wrong. Retake the test and answer the questions honestly this time. On the other hand, you may not recognize that a spiritual gift is a gift. It will be something that comes natural to you. My wife, Penny, is an organizer and has the gift of hospitality. It’s easy for her to put together a party for 200 people without giving it too much thought or effort. It comes natural. Her gift of hospitality was not  recognizable to her because she assumed that everyone could do what she does, given enough time and training. The fact is, if I attempted to do what she does, people would leave the party early and hungry. It’s a gift, not a talent.

Third, ask others. Your gift may not be easily recognizable to you, but may be to others. Especially those who are closest to you. Ask friends and family what they think you do well. Remember that these are opinions and should only be used to reinforce what the first two steps already support. Again – don’t rely heavily on the opinions of others, but use them as a resource on your journey to discover your purpose.

My hope is that each of you who find yourself behind glass will find the courage to break the glass and step out into your purpose. If that guitar could, I’m sure that it would choose to be played rather than be displayed. Step into your purpose and begin to make the music that God intended for you when He created you with a purpose.